Revolutionary Patents: Catalysts for Fourth Industrial Era Innovations
By Chuck Brooks, Skytop Contributor / November 17th, 2021
Chuck Brooks was one of “The Top 5 Tech People to Follow on LinkedIn.” He was named by Thomson Reuters as a “Top 50 Global Influencer in Risk, Compliance,” and by IFSEC as the “#2 Global Cybersecurity Influencer.” Chuck served at The Department of Homeland Security as the first Legislative Director of The Science & Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. He served as a top Advisor to the late Senator Arlen Specter on Capitol Hill covering security and technology issues on Capitol Hill. More recently, he was featured in the 2020 Onalytica “Who’s Who in Cybersecurity” – as one of the top Influencers for cybersecurity issues. He was also named one of the Top 5 Executives to Follow on Cybersecurity by Executive Mosaic.
He is also a Cybersecurity Expert for “The Network” at the Washington Post, Visiting Editor at Homeland Security Today, Expert for Executive Mosaic/GovCon, and a Contributor to Forbes.com. He recently presented to the G20 on Energy Cybersecurity and has been a featured author in technology and cybersecurity blogs & events by IBM, AT&T, Microsoft, Cylance, Xerox, Malwarebytes, General Dynamics Mission Systems, and many others.
Chuck is on the Faculty of Georgetown University where he teaches in the Graduate Applied Intelligence and Cybersecurity Risk Program. He has an M.A from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from DePauw University.
President of Brooks Consulting International, Chuck is a globally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies.
Exponential Connectivity Driven from Technological Breakthroughs
We are currently in a disruptive era of technological advancement labeled The Fourth Industrial Era.
It is characterized by exponential connectivity of people and devices and involves the meshing of physical, digital, and biological worlds. This includes a multitude of new technologies (among others) such as artificial intelligence (AI) & machine learning (ML), robotics, sensors, 5G nanotechnologies, biotech, blockchain, and quantum.
The engine of the Fourth Industrial Era is driven by investment in research & development and in creating new innovative patented applications in new technologies.
Patents Drive Innovation and Commercial Reputation
While it is difficult to assign metrics for ingenuity and innovation, patents offer immediate and long-term insights for present day disruptors, such as cyber security or business model adaptation. Carnegie Mellon University’s LibGuides: Cybersecurity: Patents and Trademarks defines a patent as a government license that gives the holder exclusive rights to a process, design, or new invention for a designated period of time. In the U.S. granting a patent means “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States for a limited time.”
The purpose of patents is succinctly explained on the website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). They state their mission as “to foster innovation, competitiveness and economic growth, domestically and abroad, by providing high quality and timely examination of patent and trademark applications, guiding domestic and international intellectual property (IP) policy, and delivering IP information and education worldwide.”
The USPTO office also keeps great records and publishes a complete listing of U.S. patents from 1790 to the present. Certainly, against that backdrop developing a new and original patent is not an easy task.
Patents must be unique as well as functional.
The awarded patents, derived from unique ideas and designs, are intellectual property and can serve as a business roadmap to commercial and government markets. Patents can also be viewed as drivers for innovation and potential desirability products in the global economy. In fact, most top multinational companies also use the achievement of being awarded patents as a positive measure of commercial value and influence on reputation.
Top Multinational Companies as Patent Holders
The list of top patent holders for 2020 reflects the importance they deem on their company innovation paths.
The top 5 included: IBM, the company’s scientists and researchers received 9,130 patents in 2020. Samsung was #2 with 6,415 patent grants. Canon ranked third with 3,225 patents. Microsoft was in fourth with 2,905 patents. And Intel with 2,867 patents in 2020. Top Patent Holders Of 2020 | Nasdaq
Number of Cybersecurity Patents Catapult Upwards
In the Fourth Industrial era, the trend in patents is focused on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things, cognitive computing, and especially the digital glue that protects those technologies, cybersecurity.
Congruent with R&D spending and growing global cyber threats, there has been growth in the number of patent applications in the cybersecurity industry submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”).
Cybersecurity is a newer patent category but has been catapulted by an increasingly connected digital ecosystem that serves as the backbone for every industry vertical from finance to healthcare. The first U.S. patent for cybersecurity came in September of 1983 when MIT was granted U.S. Patent 4,405,829 for a “cryptographic communications system and method.” The patent introduced the RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) algorithm, which was one of the first public key cryptosystems for cybersecurity.
Nearly forty years after the first awarded patent, cybersecurity is now at a tipping point. The sheer volume of breaches, attacks, and threats has become overwhelming.
Because of increased reliance on digital connectivity, every company’s operation, brand, reputation, and revenue pipelines can be directly threatened by cyberattacks and breaches. New innovations and strategies are needed in the development technologies to help contain growing cyber threats.
The need to bring solutions to market, ones that can leap over the bad guys’ advances and secure the cyber landscape is an imperative in 2022.
The High Potential Impact of Artificial Intelligence
Like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence is also a newer patent area.
A study by the US Patent and a Trade Office entitled, Inventing AI: Tracing the diffusion of artificial intelligence with U.S. patents, sums up AI’s innovation potential. “The broad scope of new products and services that build on AI technologies suggests that AI has the potential to fundamentally change how people perceive the world around them and live their daily lives. This is the essence of technological progress, and realizing these changes happens through innovation.” The study found that “(AI) is increasingly important for invention, diffusing broadly across technologies, inventor-patentees, organizations, and geography.” Refer to this report for details.
Companies are investing in AI research to find out how they can bring AI closer to humans.
By 2025 AI software revenues alone will reach above $100 billion globally (Figure 1). This means that we will continue seeing the advancement of AI and Machine Learning (ML)-related technology in the foreseeable future. AI changes notably fast, so you’ll need to go out of your way to keep up with the latest trends if you want to stay as informed as possible. Let’s look at everything you need to know about the latest AI trends:
Figure 1. Annual AI Software Revenue (Source: Tractica) from Latest Trends in Artificial Intelligence | Newark
Small Companies Contribute, Too
Multi-nationals with huge R&D investment and operating budgets are making significant
investments into AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies. However, a wide range of small businesses, organizations, universities, labs, and individuals are adding to the technology patent manifest every year. Whether you are a large powerhouse company such as IBM or a small R&D firm, using our brain muscles to create innovations and patents is needed to better our lives and keep us safe.
The Fourth Industrial Era is a new inflection point in history that will usher in emerging technologies and change our way of life.
The lion’s share of technology innovation will offer greater power of automation inside work environments and in security. In those areas, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence are ripe for continued increase in new patents as new discoveries and tech strategies are applied to business.
Reviewing patents reveal what innovation may be next in line. The Fourth Industrial Era offers innovators an unprecedented opportunity to imagine life much different than it is today.
Stay tuned.